MUW's new provost a historian

COLUMBUS — The Mississippi University for Women has hired a new provost, and he’s a historian who specializes in French history.

Dan Heimmermann, hailing from the University of Texas at Brownsville, will become the university’s second-highest ranked administrator on Aug. 1, according to The Commercial Dispatch.

At UTB he has served as dean of the college of liberal arts. Prior to that he served as chair of the department of history and political science at the University of North Alabama in Florence, Ala., where he received a number of research fellowships.

His duties will include overseeing academic policies, deans, the registrar’s office, the library and the honors college.

He hopes to teach history on a limited basis as well. He obtained a master’s and doctorate degree in European history from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis.

Heimmermann lived for a year in Bordeaux, France and has visited the country several times while researching his book-in-progress, which focuses on worker culture in 18th-century Bordeaux. The book is the culmination of more than two decades of research.

He said he was interested in taking the job at MUW because of a new tuition-waiver law that allows Mississippi colleges and universities to waive out-of-state tuition for students who live just across the state line. The new law is expected to be implemented at MUW by next spring.